Carroll's Training Turns
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday December 14, 1999
After previous setbacks, marathon runner Pat Carroll hopes to have found the route to Olympic glory, as Garry West reports.
THREE times-unlucky marathon runner Pat Carroll has turned to cycling in a bid to spin the wheels of Olympic justice his way in the twilight of a 20-year career.
In doing so, the Brisbane insurance consultant has become a ``guinea pig" for Australia's road king, Steve Moneghetti, who is prepared to consider a similar move in his quest for Sydney 2000 selection.
But the field of aspirants for the three Australian marathon spots in next year's Games is becoming crowded, with Carroll among four runners who have posted qualifying times and at least another two, including Moneghetti, determined to join them.
Carroll, 38, has never made the Olympic team despite being ranked among the country's elite distance runners since the mid-1980s, a fact which clearly frustrates him.
He qualified too late in the marathon for the 1988 Games, turned to the 5,000m for 1992 and qualified but was still not selected, and returned to the longer event for 1996 but was overlooked after missing the trial to run another race.
``I could be a three-times Olympian but I'm a nothing Olympian," he says.
Now he has decided to wind back his training distances after finishing exhausted at the world championships in Seville, Spain, in August, when he crossed the line 48th in 2hr 32min 26s, almost 23 minutes slower than his personal best.
``My legs were shot and I felt like I needed a change [in training]. I felt like they were starting to fatigue from all the years of running.
``I'm happy with the way it's going," he says of his new regime.
He is running just once a day, compared with twice a day for five days every week in the period leading up to the world championships, and has replaced the missing roadwork with a ``spin session" on an exercise bike.
``I don't see myself going back to twice-a-day running. If anything, it's probably a good time to do it," he says.
``I can capitalise on the `millions of miles' I have done in the last 20 years and start to freshen up for the Olympics.
``There's no sense in going into them tired. When you compete, you have to feel like you're alive. I didn't feel like that on the starting line [in the world championships]."
He believes the new training method is reaping results, citing his performance in a 5,000m road race at Noosa in Queensland in November, in which he came close to recording his personal best time for the tight course.
He was also happy with his results in a major test in the Chiba Ekiden relay in Japan in November, when he ran just 10 seconds outside his best in the 12.2km anchor leg for the five-man Australian team.
Ballarat-based Moneghetti, the 1994 Commonwealth marathon champion and 1997 world championship bronze medallist in the marathon, intends to keep a close eye on the progress of the Queenslander.
``I'm not notorious for being a super-hard trainer," Moneghetti says.
``I have undertrained and I hope it's kept my legs in better shape than Pat's. But I'm interested in the fact that he's decided to do it.
``There's probably a place for it. For someone like me who does no other training except running, I'm always interested in people who are strong enough to try and do something that's a little bit different.
``If it's successful I would incorporate it into my training. I see him as my guinea pig."
Moneghetti, who has not yet qualified for the Sydney Olympics, says his immediate priority is not so much on cross-training as training itself, because he only resumed his full schedule in mid-October.
He injured his left achilles tendon in November 1998, resuming running in February this year and arriving under-prepared for the world championships, where he finished 29th in 2:20.32, more than 12 minutes outside his best.
The Sydney Games are likely to be the last Olympics for the 37-year-old Moneghetti, who is considering running the Olympic trial on April30, which will be held over the Games course.
Runners must have competed in either the world championships or the trial and have run a qualifying time to be considered for an Olympic spot, requirements which Carroll has met so far.
Other Australians to have run under the International Amateur Athletic Federation's ``A" qualifying time of 2:14.00 this year are the Moneghetti-trained fellow Victorian Lee Troop, who ran 2:11.20 on debut for 11th in the London marathon in April, West Australian Ray Boyd, who finished 15th in a personal best of 2:13.27 in a fast Chicago marathon in October, and Victoria's 1996 Olympian Rod de Highden, who ran a personal best 2:13.53 for 13th in the Fukuoka marathon on December6.
Another possible contender for an Olympic spot is 1994 Commonwealth Games silver medalist Sean Quilty.
If Carroll runs well, Moneghetti says he will consider taking up cross-training.
``I would be less convinced by his performance than by his opinion," he says.
© 1999 Sydney Morning Herald
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